Something In The Water
by Yoshida Megumi-chan
Summary: Half of his life wasn't really his, but in the end it doesn't really matter. He had lived a life - not fulfilling and certainly not good, but a life none the less. Thirteen things about Yagura's real life everyone forgot.
1. Table of Contents

_**The title comes from Carrie Underwood's song**_ **Something In The Water.**

 _ **This is a tribute to one of my most favorite characters in the Naruto universe. Enjoy.**_

* * *

 **13 things about Yagura no one knows**

1\. His favored way of fighting is a mix of Taijutsu and Ninjutsu – however, his true talent lies in Genjutsu, which he frequently uses to confuse his enemies. Majority of Kiri looks up to him because of his power, and not all of them are fond of the intricate ways of a good Genjutsu. So he lets all of them think he is a Tai- and Bojutsu specialist. It's not his fault they got his sphere of skills wrong, and he sure won't try to correct them. One shouldn't show anyone their cards, after all, especially if they can catch their enemies off guard.

2\. The reason he started learning bojutsu with his 'weird' staff before he even entered the Academy was to honor his mother: when he had destroyed her flowers, she had told him tales of the scary yokai Isonade who would grab him with his hooked tail and eat him whole. He swore to always remember her as he stood in front of her grave, trying to hold his tears in. _(When, decades later, the Jyuubi was sucking him and Isobu in, Yagura remembered his mother's tales, and laughed.)_

3\. 'Water Mirror' had been a technique of his own creation: he had the firm belief that all done should be returned equally, and even if it did no harm, it would stagger the victim. After the Water release jutsu was completed, it had become his signature one, and he used it in combination with his Genjutsu more than one could imagine.

4\. Yagura hated the colour of his eyes – everyone who had the guts to say it to his face, commented that it only accented his already effeminate face. ( _He had them personally tortured and then publicly executed for that offence alone._ )

5\. The scar on his face was received from the Three-Tails, just before he was sealed within the future Mizukage. It had hurt like hell and as it never healed up properly, they stitched it together to prevent his face from splitting open. _(He wasn't fond of it, because that had been the last wound he had received before he became a doll on strings; but it was the mark of the last conscious decision he had made: to not evade the attack of Isobu and let the bijuu kill him.)_

6\. The sister of the Second Mizukage was his grandmother, and his father was an Uzumaki. Thankfully, Yagura had seemingly inherited the laid-back and cool personality of his mother's family. That was proven untrue during the numerous temper tantrums he was prone to throwing when someone made fun of his height or called him a child. His Uzumaki Legacy was not only that – the Jinchuuriki had the annoying habit of starting to hum an Uzumaki lullaby every time he was starting to get nervous or afraid. _(During his final battle, after he had spoken with Uzumaki Naruto, Yagura closed his eyes and started to hum a soothing, familiar melody.)_

7\. His favorite food had been clams until Isobu was sealed within him; after that, he never, not even once, glanced at seafood.

8\. His favorite ninja art, just below Genjutsu, was Fuuinjutsu – a few well-placed lines could capture a beast rumored to have the strength of a god, and Yagura was going to damn himself if he didn't manage to find out how his seal worked. It would not do, after all, if someone decided to mess with it without him noticing. _(In the end, it didn't really matter.)_

9\. When he was seven, his father had carved him a flute out of a bamboo near their house, and taught him an Uzumaki traditional song about their free spirits. He had taken to bringing it with him, even when his father was long dead and, in his strenuous training he had forgotten the melody. _(Uchiha Madara had entered the village and was fighting him – and when Yagura was on the ground, coughing up blood, the masked man had looked down, grazing at the instrument, his light voice mocking as he asked 'Well, well, and what is this? A memento from your long dead parents, maybe?' and crushed it mercilessly under his foot.)_

10\. He didn't have anything against Kekkei Genkai users, initially. He actually thought of them as cool, when he was a kid, and wanted to destroy the prejudice everyone had for them when he became the next Mizukage. _(When he was five, his mother had been killed by a Hyoton user. He was never the same.)_

11\. His fuchsia-colored eyes helped him greatly when he used Genjutsu – it was considerably easier to trap someone into an illusion if they looked the caster in the eyes. Pink pupilless eyes could not be easily ignored, after all.

12\. When he had met Uzumaki Naruto, there was a barely noticed pang of jealousy and regret – Yagura was already dead, and would never be able to properly acquaintance himself with his unique clansmember.

13\. Yagura was actually twenty-two when he died, through it didn't seem that way. The Mizukage had been really annoyed when it turned out he had a rather annoying medical condition: he would never be able to normally grow up. The medic-nins had absolutely no idea how to call his condition, and only knew of Senju Tsunade, who used chakra to make herself appear younger. It was a possible defect in his chakra system, they said. Yagura had never really managed to come to terms with it, though, and was always irritated when someone joked about his child-like appearance.


	2. Number One

_**I actually found out that only lists are not allowed in fanfiction . net, which helped me fight the boredom and laziness and actually make this a set of drabbles (well, they were supposed to be drabbles – now this is more like a one-shot collection).**_

 _ **MrGoodyTwoShoes, I give you the most ceremonial thumbs-up one has ever seen, I bow to you, take off my hat, give you my utmost respect, etc, etc… If you think I am going overboard, you don't know how hard it is for someone to actually make me do something I don't plan on doing, not to mention in the same week.**_

 _ **Thanks again!**_

 _ **And, all readers of this, please enjoy.**_

* * *

 ** _13 things about Yagura no one knows_**

 _1\. His favored way of fighting is a mix of Taijutsu and Ninjutsu – however, his true talent lies in Genjutsu, which he frequently uses to confuse his enemies. Majority of Kiri looks up to him because of his power, and not all of them are fond of the intricate ways of a good Genjutsu. So he lets all of them think he is a Tai- and Bōjutsu specialist. It's not his fault they got his sphere of skills wrong, and he sure won't try to correct them. One shouldn't show anyone their cards, after all, especially if they can catch their enemies off guard._

* * *

Yagura is seven when his father shows him his first Ninjutsu. It is a Water Release, as expected, but even though he has a Water Affinity, it's marginally harder to force the water stream out of his mouth than he expected it to be, even taking into account that he's doing it for the first time. The boy tries it again and again and again, but something doesn't feel right, never does.

Finally, after his tenth use of the water jutsu, when Yagura feels like he would collapse on the ground and turn into muddy seaweed, his father holds his hand up in a halting gesture and waves him over, and Yagura feels a tad bit insulted that he's interrupted like that. He's going to learn how to do it properly, he just needs some time! After all, what Mizukage can't do a simple Suiton technique?

So he stubbornly ignores his father, shapes his hands into the Dragon Seal, scowling, and slowly forms next the Tiger, then the Hare Hand Seal, taking a deep breath while molding his chakra, and exhaling.

"Suiton: Mizurappa!" Yagura calls out, and a stream of water gushes out of his mouth, stronger than before. It almost reaches the target painted onto the big rock in front of him, and it's not a success, not really, but it _is_ progress, a suitable one, and he's more than pleased with himself. He's in the middle of cheering, already in the middle of pushing his hands to form the Hand Seals again, when sudden drowsiness overcomes him. If his father wasn't there to catch him when he collapses, he would've surely split his head open on the rocks underneath his feet.

Okay. So that's what Chakra exhaustion felt like. It is a horrible feeling, little Yagura decides then, and he would make sure to never exhaust his Chakra in such a way. Never, ever again.

* * *

When Yagura learns that he is naturally oriented towards Genjutsu, he's so disappointed and angry and sad that he almost cannot believe he's experiencing all these negative emotions at once. In the Village Hidden in the Mist Genjutsu is looked down upon. It's regarded as a trick of the mind, a sign of the weak; if you can't take your opponent down with your body, your chakra, and instead have to resort to flimsy mind tricks, then you are nothing in this village. That's what the Third Mizukage preaches, and that's what every child who enters the Academy knows by heart.

So Yagura ignores his talent for the Illusionary Techniques they barely cover in the Academy curriculum, pretends they don't fascinate him with their intricate aspects and thought-out details and just general elegance, and instead dives head-first into Taijutsu and, later, when his father finally confides to him that the reason he trains him in Bōjutsu is because he himself was a trained bō-user, takes up Bōjutsu even more seriously.

* * *

Just before Yagura graduates from the Academy, at the then _almost_ exceptional age of eight, his father is killed during a mission. Caught in a Genjutsu, the reports say. Didn't even notice getting his throat cut.

And something in Yagura burns, burns so brightly it hurts, and oh god it does hurt so much – first his mother dies by the hands of those rogue Hyōton users, then his father gets himself killed because of a stupid, weak Genjutsu – they are soiling his memory, calling him weak because he was caught in the 'fake' ninja art, and Yagura is walking _right_ on the edge, _one_ small push and he'll fall off.

And when the boy he was paired with at the graduation exam has the _gall_ , the _ **sheer guts**_ to call his father a failure, a pathetic excuse of a ninja, right in his face, all regret that had been coiled in his gut for months - because he doesn't want to hurt a child, a classmate, a _teammate_ \- bleeds out in a second. And Yagura snaps.

He doesn't forget the Jōnin that is supposed to watch their fight and record it, never letting his guard down towards the presence that burns in his sensor range, however he ignores him completely, because he's so mad it's maddening in itself.

"So you think anyone who is caught in a Genjutsu and loses their life because of that is weak?" He hears himself saying coldly to the other Genin-hopeful, and he barely recognizes his voice and ah, that must be it, to let your rage howl in your own voice, he muses, feeling the tension in his muscles and the emotionless mask he's let his own face become.

Yagura flashes through the signs he now knows by heart, ones he practices in the quiet of his deserted home to find out what is so great about Genjutsu to manage to get his father killed, though before he can catch himself, he's already immersing himself deeper than intended, and starts to enjoy it more than a Kiri shinobi and a future Mizukage should.

It's a simple D-Rank Genjutsu, one with a short range and with extreme usefulness. The Snake and Rat Hand Signs are formed in the span of half a second, and the Jōnin doesn't see them because he doesn't pay that much attention to the son of an apparent weakling, and he doesn't see nor hear the uttered 'Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu', but he certainly hears the scream the other boy lets out when the illusion is set in place.

Yagura knows that physical pain will break the jutsu, but he's hungry for revenge, and he aims at the left lung, close to the heart, and throws his kunai. There is the sound of flesh tearing, and another scream sounds in the field. The Genin-graduate falls on his knees, and before his already blurry eyes, he sees the figure of Yagura, head held high as the grey-haired boy looks down at him and sneers, almost invisibly.

"That must mean you're weak then, right?" The body falls on the ground, blood pooling around, and before the Jōnin can utter a word, Yagura already turns towards him, flashes through the signs again, casts the weak Genjutsu, and cuts the Kiri shinobi's throat before he could utter a word. It wouldn't do if Yagura was banned from becoming Mizukage because it got out he used Genjutsu, after all.

* * *

When Yagura is chosen as Mizukage, he's seventeen and one of the strongest shinobi of the Village Hidden in the Mist, and he's immensely proud of himself.

Now, he could finally change things. He could finally show his people that the ninja Clans with kekkai genkai are not monsters, that they are ordinary humans too.

His dream is finally going to be fuifilled.


End file.
